The Question:
According to his biographer, G.D. Austrian, he wanted to make the acquaintance of Dr. John Shaw Billings' daughter, Kate Sherman Billings, and on first meeting her, he attempted to impress her by buying all but one of the lottery tickets that she happened to be selling. The unpurchased ticket, needless to say, turned out to be the winning one. Billings and he were to later form a collaboration, and they perfected a system in 1890 that has turned out to be one of the biggest innovations that sparked off the computing world. Who was this person, and what did the collaboration lead to?
The answer:
The man was Herman Hollerith. Dr. John Shaw Billings was the head of
the division of Vital Statistics for the Census Bureau, among other things.
Hollerith was working with the US Census Bureau as a statistician They
came up with a tabulating system which allowed the official 1890 population
count to be tallied in six months, and in another two years all the census
data was completed and defined; the cost was $5 million and below the forecasts
and saved more than two years' time. Due to it’s success, in 1896 Hollerith
founded the Tabulating Machine Company, forerunner of the Computer Tabulating
Recording Company (CTR), which was renamed in 1924 as International Business
Machines that grew to great heights as IBM under Thomas J Watson.
Results of Gopal's Weekly Quiz - 88:
No. of respondents: 2
No. of correct answers: 2
The Respondents:
1. Hemant Aneja
His Answer: The person's name is Hollerith's
and the collaboration led to "Hollerith's Census Collator".
2. chandan kumar
His Answer: herman hollerith IBM.
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© 1999 Gopal Srinivasan < mailgops@iname.com >